This is one of the most intriguing posts. It's a little long, but read it all, please. It's an amazing piece of fact. It's a scene out of a movie, it's that cliche` that you neve believe
happens. My email for extra information about the author went unanswered so I have been left unknowing.
This is brilliant. The story itself. How it's written, capturing the emotion but not getting carried away. You know there's feeling, but you know they've moved on, mostly. There is a detachment in his voice. There is sadness, there is regret, but there is the smile that creeps through at the simple recollection of what happened.
This is a story about boy meets girl 2 years ago in a little town called Sydney.
I wrote this a month after it happened yet never posted it given the circumstances. I can’t write however I felt like I needed to document this.
I haven’t changed the content, faked any of the places or things that happened. You are the first to read this other than I.
I think about her every day.
I regret my decision.
Every day after this I chose to always follow my heart and never listen to my head.
It helps.
Four.
It was supposed to be a quick business trip. Jump on a plane, eat shit plane food, watch shit pay-tv, land, hire a car, drive to the city, present to the board, head to the hotel, rest, go for drinks with the Sydney boys, head back to the hotel, sleep, wake, have breakfast, jump on a plane then go home.
Simple.
No.
It started at the airport. The plane was grounded and so was the next one. I called head office and rescheduled. The meeting was now for 4PM tomorrow. Guess I’ll be staying for an extra day.
Four hours later I finally jumped on my plane, had my shit plane food (a chicken salad sandwich) and watched the shit pay-tv (Sky News). The plane landed and I headed directly to the pub to meet the boys.
It had been four years since I last saw these guys. Unfortunately we lost contact. I don’t know why I was excited to see them again. So much had changed.
I arrived at the hotel bar where they were waiting for me. I was greeted with handshakes and back pats by all except Rob. Four pints in and I noticed Rob had a wedding band on his finger.
“Fuck man Robert, you got married?”
“Uh, yep”, was his hesitant reply.
“So, who is she?”
“Chloe.”
Four hours later I was sitting on my hotel bed.
Four years ago I left Sydney because of a failed engagement.
Four minutes is all it took me to leave the bar and find a cab.
Four seconds is the amount of time it took me to process that single name before I left.
Chloe was the reason why I left.
I couldn’t sleep.
I knew wedding plans fell apart because she was with someone.
Fucking Rob.
It was few minutes after 4AM I as saw the sun starting to peek over the horizon so I decided to go for a jog to clear my head.
I was staying at the Hyatt so I headed north. Over the bridge, past Luna park and found my way to Clark Park. Dizzy, dehydrated and mentally redundant I took a seat and stared at the trees as the sun continued to rise in the sky.
Then it happened.
A petite girl sat next to me. Long flowing brown hair, green eyes that seemed to penetrate my soul, legs that looked photoshopped and a smile that you could get lost in forever.
“Whatcha listening to?”, she asked pointing to my iPod.
“Uh, not sure. It’s my sister’s playlist. I was just listening to it on shuffle.”
She reached to my arm band, pulled out my headphones and plugged her own into my mp3 player. As she listened, she started to smile and laughed out loud. I raised an eyebrow to question the laugh and she grabbed my headphone jack and plugged me into her mp3 player.
We were both listening to the same artist.
Missy Higgins.
We got talking and eventually got lost in deep conversation. We talked about music, movies and books which was the usual waffle that you’d expect between strangers but then we moved on to discussing relationships, the true meaning of love, if we wanted to have children, what names they’d be and what we’d do when we retired.
My phone rang and it was my PA on the other side.
“Meeting is cancelled. Aaron’s wife was in a car accident.”
Looks like I’ve got some added spare time.
We jogged back to her car and drove back to my hotel. Sitting in the carpark, she commented about how smelly she was after the jog so I offered her the shower in my hotel room, as long as she hung around to have lunch with me. Without answering my offer, she pulled out her mobile and called the office, cancelling the rest of her day. She smiled, grabbed her backpack from behind the passenger seat and got out of the car, walking towards the hotel lobby.
Upstairs in my room, she got the shower and I waited on the balcony overlooking the river. Impatient and noticing my own post-exercise stench, I went back in and searched for some cologne, knowing full well that I was about to jump back into the shower after she was done.
My toiletries bag was in the bathroom but I noticed the door was slightly opened. I knocked on the door and called into the room.
“Do you mind if I grab some of my stuff from there? I promise I won’t look.”
“Mmmkay”, came the response.
I went in and grabbed my stuff, making sure I wasn’t facing the shower screen however the mirror was in front of me. It felt like time had stopped when I saw her reflection in the mirror. The glass was steamed up but I could see a very clear outline of her body. She was perfect. I looked up and saw two eyes staring at me above the steamed glass in the reflection.
I grabbed my cologne, darted out of the room and apologised.
A few minutes later she exited, saying the shower was all mine. I quickly jumped in, washed then jumped out. Record timing. She called into the room from the other side of the door.
“What are you doing after lunch?”
“Um, nothing much. Not much I can do as I have an early flight in the morning.”
“Ever head of a restaurant called Becasse?”
“Nope”
“Its pretty popular, my brother chefs there, I’ll get us a table.” She said as she peeked through the opening of the door.
“Damn”, she said in a faux disappointed tone. “I was hoping to get my revenge and see a bit of you but you’re already dressed.”
“Sorry about that again.” I replied.
“That’s ok. I liked it.”
We headed off to lunch and continued off the conversation from where we had left it earlier. Career paths were discussed and we moved on to our dreams and future plans. Hours passed and we were kicked out of the establishment so we took a walk down to circular quay. The day was perfect. A gentle breeze and no clouds out accompanied the warm sun. I grabbed her hand as we walked.
I squeezed.
She squeezed back.
We sat there amongst the sea of tourists and watched boats sail in and out of the harbour. We made fun of the people walking past, shared an ice cream and a bag of honey roasted peanuts that I had in my jacket pocket from the flight in. The sun was setting and the people started to thin out. She rested her head on my shoulder and cuddled up to me as the cool evening air started to envelope us. I could smell her hair. It was intoxicating.
We sat there for over an hour and said absolutely nothing to each other.
The silence was golden.
Her phone chimed on the hour, bringing us back to reality as a reminder of our dinner date. We jumped in a cab and headed off to the restaurant. I had the fish and she had the veal. She told me about her family, her allergies, her pet cats and her irrational fear of spiders. We laughed through the night disturbing the other patrons but didn’t care. Two bottles of wine later, we left and walked hand-in-hand to Darling Harbour.
There was more talking, more silence, more laughing and more nothingness. It felt like a thousand words were being said when nothing was said at all.
A few hours of wandering the harbour, I started to notice the wine buzz was wearing off.
“I guess we should be wrapping this up,” I said. “It’s getting late and I have to jump on a plane soon.”
“When are you due back?”
“No idea. Not for work certainly, head office is shutting up shop here and relocating.”
“Oh”, she responded, voice breaking up slightly on the end.
“But I have been looking at buying an investment property with my sister in Manly. Once she sells her business, I might have to fly in to…”
She cut me off with a kiss.
Her lips were soft and tasted like cherries. My arms wrapped around her and we lost ourselves in that kiss that like it went on forever.
“Oh Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit”, she said, breaking off the kiss.
“What?”
“I have a boyfriend. Fuck. I’m really sorry. We had a fight last night so I did this to get back at him but I really really like you. You’re perfect in every way. I’m… I don’t know why I’m having all these thoughts in my head. We only just met.”
I grabbed her hand and told her that it was alright and that I understood.
“No, its not alright”, she exclaimed. “What’s worse is that I’ve been too embarrassed to ask you your name.”
She was right.
We never introduced ourselves. We were lost in the moment. I never told her my name and she never told me her name.
“Then lets just keep it that way”, I said. “You’re not going to find out what my name is.”
I kissed her and she kissed me back. It was the most passionate kiss I have ever had and ever will.
“I’m going to leave now. No damage done”, I said as she started to blink away the tears.
I squeezed her hand, kissed her on the forehead and pecked her on the lips.
“It was an absolute pleasure.”
“Ditto”, she responded.
I left, jumped in a cab and headed back to my hotel.
At the hotel, I sat on my bed and stared at my slightly distorted reflection in the television.
There was a knock on the door.
“I left my backpack in your room.” Said the voice on the other side of the door.
I opened up the door and she leaped in, holding me and kissing me, pushing me towards the bed. We landed on the bed with a thump and started to undress.
“No”, I said. “We have to stop this. I can’t do this. You have a boyfriend.”
“But I think… I..”
“Don’t say it.”
I put my finger against her lips.
“Then can you just hold me tonight?” She asked.
I wrapped my arms around her and embraced her. Breathing in as much of her scent as I possibly could.
She eventually drifted off to sleep.
I got up to gather my things. Needed to get to the airport soon.
She looked beautiful in the moonlight. I kissed her on the forehead. She smiled, asked me to come back to bed and dozed off again.
Gathering my things, I pulled out a business card and tore it into three, carefully removing my phone number and company name, leaving only my name and job title showing.
I took out my pen, wrote on the back and place the card on the table. Then I left.
“please find me”
They were the wrong three words.
S. Ryan x
